From [HERE] China’s top foreign policy official on Saturday mocked America’s response to a recent Chinese spy balloon overflight, calling the U.S. actions “absurd and hysterical” and an effort “to divert attention from its domestic problems.”

The official, Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s senior member for foreign affairs, repeated his government’s claim that the balloon, which flew over several U.S. states this month before President Biden ordered it shot down, was a “civilian” craft blown off course by high winds.

He made the remarks in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, which has been largely focused on Ukraine, as suspense mounted over whether he might meet on the sidelines with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. It would be the first high-level diplomatic exchange between Washington and Beijing since Mr. Blinken canceled a planned trip to China over the balloon episode.

The balloon episode has heightened U.S.-China tensions at a time when the relationship was already at one of its lowest points in decades. American officials say the balloon carried visible equipment that “was clearly for intelligence surveillance,” part of a global surveillance fleet directed by China’s military. [MORE]